Editors Note: This is NOT a paid political advertisement or endorsed by anyone other than the writer / author of this blog. On Monday, August 19th, Democratic Presidential candidate Julián Castro unveiled a platform focused on advancing the welfare of animals around the globe, both domestic and wildlife. It would raise standards for factory farms […]

They said it couldn’t happen. They said wild salmon would never breach penned-up fish farms. They were wrong. And that’s a big problem. On June 11, 2019, members from the ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ / Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, including Tribal Parks Guardians and members of the Clayoquot Sound Indigenous Salmon Alliance, boarded and inspected open net pen […] […]

President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency has escalated tensions all across the southern border. The large majority of residents who live near the Mexican border don’t want the Wall built. Their reasons include fear of the government’s use of eminent domain, the high probability of flooding from a built wall, concern of escalating tensions […] […]

Just when you thought your food choices were clear and safe. UK firm The John Innes Centre has applied for permission to plant experimental genetically modified wheat and broccoli in open fields at their farm outside Norwich, in the United Kingdom. The research company hopes to begin two small-scale field trials in April. In 2017, […]

When you consider our nation’s health, the quality of our food, its decreasing nutritional value and the increased degradation of our farmland, it’s not a pretty picture — and the challenges related to these issues keep growing. By 2050 the world’s population will likely reach close to 9 billion people. To feed everyone, we’ll need […]

I came across a video about the North Pacific Garbage Patch (vs. the newly discovered gyre in the South Pacific Ocean). I’ve written a number of times about this whirling maelstrom but have rarely seen footage that displayed it like this.

Many are getting familiar with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or the term “gyre”, referring to areas of our oceans where large amounts of plastic debris lay swirling in ever-growing dimensions. Now a study published in he journal Marine Pollution Bulletin marks the first documentation of a defined ocean garbage patch in the Southern Hemisphere, where little research on marine plastic pollution exists.

The Upcycle the Gyres Society wants to collect and convert ocean plastic into usable fuel

Over the past three years, I’ve written about the plastic debris or plastic gyres, in our world’s oceans. The latest news is that the gyres are growing larger, making the need to find solutions to clean them up even more critical.

I’ve written several stories about the dirth of plastic in our oceans and creating gyres around the world. The problem with collecting it has always been that the majority of it consists of small fragments, making it difficult to simply scoop up. Also it’s more brittle due to its exposure to ultraviolet light and ocean degradation.

But a partnership between Method, the “green” laundry product company, and recycler Envision Plastics Industries LLC. has done what no company’s done before. Pellets made partly from ocean plastic debris rolled off Envision’s Chino, California’s plant assembly line on March 1st.

Plastic trash that's washed up on beaches off the coast of Baja, California

There’s a lot of garbage in our oceans.

The majority of it’s plastic. Marine life like sharks, dolphins, whales, fish, even birds mistake it for food and try to eat it, often suffering starvation because they can’t digest it.

Almost all our oceans contain plastic “gyres” – accumulated plastic trash that’s been swept out to sea or been dumped and carried by currents into a swirling maelstrom. Gyres exist in the northern Pacific Ocean (the Great Pacific Garbage Patch) said to be larger than the state of Texas), the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Electrolux Vacs from the Sea collection are made with reclaimed ocean plastics

Swedish-based Electrolux – international manufacturer of quality appliances including their well-known vacuum cleaners – has taken on the issue, launching a global initiative to work with organizations to begin recovering plastic from the ocean.